Mandorlini skipped training, so CFR could start playing better!

After yet another disappointing display and an unexpected defeat in Galati, CFR’s coach Andrea Mandorlini left his assistants take over today’s training session. Obviously, the press speculated about a possible replacement, with president Iuliu Muresan in a short trip to France (where the out of contract Laszlo Boloni resides), but this could be just one of the Italian’s methods to turn things around, after he has failed to put together a solid team and a style of play in the three months long winter break :-).

Following Adrian Falub’s resignation, Unirea Alba Iulia is close to signing former Steaua coach, the experienced Dumitru “Titi” Dumitriu. Indeed, this might be a good choice for an otherwise decent team to at least have a shot at avoiding the drop.

National team coach Razvan Lucescu has challenged Florin Costea to help his team avoid relegation, in order to get more attention from him in the near future. Costea is a regular scorer in Liga I, plus Universitatea’s best, highest rated, star (etc, etc) player and most pundits cannot understand why he’s not getting regular call-ups from Lucescu jr. I’m not one of them ;-).

Steaua’s owner Gigi Becali threatened coach Mihai Stoichita, after his desire (to drop Alexandru Tudose from the first team) was ignored in the 2-2 draw against Unirea Urziceni. Stoichita collected 2 points out of 9 this year and is yet to play the likes of Parpas and Tall, defenders bought by the club at his wish. This is definitely the last warning from Becali, but I won’t be surprised to see Stoichita sticking to his choice, knowing the huge pressure he’s been under since his arrival and that he has reached a point where he contemplates leaving the club anyway.

Radu Baicu

• 15 years of continuous work in scouting, for top clubs and companies;
• Worked for clubs like Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Hannover 96, covering the Romanian market;
• Worked for Birmingham based company ‘The Scouting Network’ (www.tsn.co.uk) as a football scout;
• Worked for Zurich based company Boutique Football as a scouting network coordinator;
• International scout for Young Boys Bern for 2 years, covering Eastern European football.
• Working for the past 5 years as an international scout for a top French club.